http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/scotland/article1680513.ece
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That facade being the one that the SNP is a knowledgeable and powerful force to be reckoned with on "Business" matters and therefore is a competent place in which the nation can put it's trust.
Well last week that lie previously fostered by SNP policy mandarins has been completely blown to pieces.
Michelle Thomson was put on a pedestal by the SNP hierarchy, who previously was Managing Director of the hugely ambitiously named "Business for Scotland" (a group that liked to portray itself as the Scottish version of the CBI , although in reality it was a mere tiddler of an organisation with membership of around 30 individuals none of which are major players in Scottish Industry or Business. More information on "Business for Scotland" later. )
Michelle only became active in the SNP after the Independence Referendum and then shortly after being elected was given a top role representing Scottish Businesses, it has to be asked now though considering the texts present on her own business website showing her "Thatcherite" views , how good the SNP's often quoted "Rigorous Vetting" of prospective MP's actually was ? I suspect this will not be the only issue like this that will arise in the future, considering the vow of SNP MP's not having second jobs has already been exposed with at least 15 of them breaking the SNP "higher moral vow " on this made by Pete Wishart MP.
This extracts of the text below give the gist of the story so far.
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INVESTIGATION Greed, vanity and crooked deals that helped build £1.7million property empire for SNP’s ‘business expert’
EARLY last month, Michelle Thomson gave an interview in which
she dredged up a painful memory from primary school. The Nationalist MP
appeared to be describing the difficult birth of her social conscience.
Were Michelle T Thomson’s property
deals on the rig right side of the law?
‘When I was ten, I asked the teacher why the Queen had so many houses when
other people had none at all,’ she revealed. ‘The teacher, for my troubles, took
me out and belted me. I remember thinking, “I don’t want to be told how to
think”.’ In the light of the £1.7million property empire Mrs Thomson now controls, and the dubious means by which it was built, it was an extraordinary story to offer an interviewer who had simply asked what she had wanted to be when she was a child.
Anyone taking the trouble to check the Parliamentary register of members’ interests would find Mrs Thomson now has rather more in common with the Queen than those with no houses at all. She lists nine Scottish properties which she either owns or part-owns.
More detailed records held at the Land Registry show the MP and her husband Peter’s portfolio actually extends to 17 – many let out for between £600 and £800 a month, providing a very tidy extra income for the working couple, even after monthly mortgage repayments are subtracted.
What self- destructive impulse would drive the SNP’s business spokesman to raise the issue of multiple home ownership, t he very area where she was most vulnerable to attack?
And what would possess her to do so in the full knowledge that her solicitor Christopher Hales had been struck off for professional misconduct for his role in building her empire?
These are questions both Mrs Thomson and the SNP may reflect upon at length as they look back on her first – and possibly only – year in politics.
Both may wonder also what this wannabe property mogul, preying on the most desperate house-sellers to feather her own nest, thought she was doing representing the anti-austerity SNP at Westminster at all. For, notwithstanding her support for independence, it is abundantly clear that she and the party were not on the same page.
On the website for her firm Your Property Shop former council houses were described as ‘our favourites’ and there were boasts that English investors found them particularly attractive.
This, of course, was the local authority housing stock which was sold to council tenants under the right to buy legislation of Margaret Thatcher – a policy, and a Prime Minister, despised by the SNP.
Yet Mrs Thomson’s website celebrated the money-making opportunity the policy brought, declaring: ‘With the advent of right to buy during the Thatcher era, many Scots took advantage of the policy and bought their council home for a knock-down price.
‘Many of these same homeowners find themselves now with huge equity in their homes and are able to sell at hugely discounted rates and still pocket a handsome profit. So a “win-win” for both the vendor and the investor. Yippee!!’
But then, that decision was made very recently indeed – only a few months, in fact, before s he f ound herself in Westminster.
There she was immediately handed a frontbench brief and was trumpeted hubristically as one of the new breed of serious professionals, rich in hinterland, swelling the modern SNP’s elected ranks.
She j oined Standard Life, working in IT for 14 years before moving to the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), just before chief executive Fred Goodwin’s disastrous purchase of the Dutch Bank ABN Amro, which almost sank RBS and was one of the triggers for the financial crisis. She left her role as programme manager there just months before t he bank announced the largest annual loss in UK corporate history.
No matter, for Mrs Thomson now planned to work for herself – reaping the benefits of the very disaster her f ormer employer had helped bring about.
‘ I took advantage of the property dip to build my own portfolio of buy-to-let and holiday rental properties,’ she wrote on one social media profile.
But how was it possible to build such an extensive portfolio so quickly? Where was the money coming from?
The Scottish Solicitor’s Discipline Tribunal which struck off Mrs Thomson’s
lawyer Christopher Hales last year gives an idea how the empire could be built
without substantial capital.
Simply, she found ways to receive loans amounting to 100 per cent, or sometimes more, of the actual sum changing hands for the properties. It involved a lawyer prepared to break the rules and deceive the mortgage lender, which is why Mr Hales is out of a job.
There were two schemes to induce mortgage companies to lend more than they usually would f or t he properties. The first was ‘cashback transactions’ which required the cooperation of the seller.
In the case of a property in High Street, Jedburgh, Mrs Thomson’s solicitor offered the house seller £90,000, with the proviso that £27,000 of this sum was to be repaid to the buyer, Mrs Thomson’s company M&F Property Solutions, after settlement. That made the net purchase price £63,000. But the £67,465 loan from the mortgage
company, Birmingham Midshire, was predicated on the £90,000 figure. She had just bought a house without a deposit.
The second scheme is ‘ back to back transactions’, a manoeuvre requiring two buyers in league with each other and a crooked lawyer. Crucially, the seller’s collusion is not required.
One example was the sale of 10 MacDonald Drive in Stirling. Here Mrs Thomson’s business partner Frank Gilbride made an offer of £64,000 to the house seller Sarah Capper. But on the date of settlement he sold the property on to Mrs Thomson for £95,000.
She had received a mortgage loan of £75,855 based on that £95,000 figure and had transferred the balance to her solicitor. He then paid off the £64,000 owed to Mrs Capper and returned the proceeds to Mrs Thomson. Once again, she had bought a house without investing any capital.
The tribunal findings detail a total of 13 transactions in which Mr Hales duped mortgage lenders. In some cases the vendors, often selling their properties in desperate circumstances, were duped too.
Mrs Capper was reported to have been ‘livid’, saying: ‘My daughterin-law had told me not to accept the offer, but I had to do it. I sold it to get back to England and see my family. I had cancer and I had no one to fall back on. I could have got a lot more money if I’d gone to an estate agent.’
A former tabloid journalist, Mr Gilbride became i ncreasingly involved in the property business after his press agency Newsflash folded. While keeping a foothold in journalism, he teamed up with Mrs Thomson first in M&F Property Solutions and later in Your Property Shop.
It was in 2011, the year before Mrs Thomson became a founder member of the pro-independence group Business for Scotland, that Mr Hales was suspended from his job with Edinburgh law firm Grigor Hales after routine checks by the Law Society.
Even as she took her first tentative steps in public life, the scandal was in the pipeline, the wheels were already in motion.
She became one of the go-to spokesmen for broadcasters seeking business figures in favour of a Yes vote in the referendum – although it was never clear just how substantial a roster of big businesses was on board.
An investigation by economics blogger Kevin Hague found very few of the figures i nvolved in Business for Scotland were major company directors. Most ran tiny firms and some did not appear to be in business at all.
According to Mrs Thomson, it was only at the tail- end of 2014, and in the light of the No vote, that she decided to run for Westminster, and only in January that she was selected. With almost indecent haste a career in politics was born and, on the tidal wave of support which won the Nationalists all but three of the 59 Scottish seats, she was elected to Westminster.
Perhaps, back in January, neither she nor her party had believed she had any reasonable chance of taking Edinburgh West from the Lib Dems. But as the May election day drew closer, both must have realised she stood an excellent chance of becoming an MP. And she, surely, must have known of the storm blowing steadily in her direction.
The revelation weeks ago that her email address had been published along with millions of customers of the adultery website Ashley Madison was merely the first rumble. That, she could claim quite believably, was part of a smear campaign. But the revelations of the deceptions used by her lawyer to build her property empire by preying on vulnerable homeowners – described in his disciplinary tribunal as ‘distressed sellers – could not be dismissed so lightly.
They shine a devastatingly harsh light on the business methods of the Nationalist MP who was chosen to hold the business brief.
Simply, she found ways to receive loans amounting to 100 per cent, or sometimes more, of the actual sum changing hands for the properties. It involved a lawyer prepared to break the rules and deceive the mortgage lender, which is why Mr Hales is out of a job.
There were two schemes to induce mortgage companies to lend more than they usually would f or t he properties. The first was ‘cashback transactions’ which required the cooperation of the seller.
In the case of a property in High Street, Jedburgh, Mrs Thomson’s solicitor offered the house seller £90,000, with the proviso that £27,000 of this sum was to be repaid to the buyer, Mrs Thomson’s company M&F Property Solutions, after settlement. That made the net purchase price £63,000. But the £67,465 loan from the mortgage
company, Birmingham Midshire, was predicated on the £90,000 figure. She had just bought a house without a deposit.
The second scheme is ‘ back to back transactions’, a manoeuvre requiring two buyers in league with each other and a crooked lawyer. Crucially, the seller’s collusion is not required.
One example was the sale of 10 MacDonald Drive in Stirling. Here Mrs Thomson’s business partner Frank Gilbride made an offer of £64,000 to the house seller Sarah Capper. But on the date of settlement he sold the property on to Mrs Thomson for £95,000.
She had received a mortgage loan of £75,855 based on that £95,000 figure and had transferred the balance to her solicitor. He then paid off the £64,000 owed to Mrs Capper and returned the proceeds to Mrs Thomson. Once again, she had bought a house without investing any capital.
The tribunal findings detail a total of 13 transactions in which Mr Hales duped mortgage lenders. In some cases the vendors, often selling their properties in desperate circumstances, were duped too.
Mrs Capper was reported to have been ‘livid’, saying: ‘My daughterin-law had told me not to accept the offer, but I had to do it. I sold it to get back to England and see my family. I had cancer and I had no one to fall back on. I could have got a lot more money if I’d gone to an estate agent.’
A former tabloid journalist, Mr Gilbride became i ncreasingly involved in the property business after his press agency Newsflash folded. While keeping a foothold in journalism, he teamed up with Mrs Thomson first in M&F Property Solutions and later in Your Property Shop.
It was in 2011, the year before Mrs Thomson became a founder member of the pro-independence group Business for Scotland, that Mr Hales was suspended from his job with Edinburgh law firm Grigor Hales after routine checks by the Law Society.
Even as she took her first tentative steps in public life, the scandal was in the pipeline, the wheels were already in motion.
She became one of the go-to spokesmen for broadcasters seeking business figures in favour of a Yes vote in the referendum – although it was never clear just how substantial a roster of big businesses was on board.
An investigation by economics blogger Kevin Hague found very few of the figures i nvolved in Business for Scotland were major company directors. Most ran tiny firms and some did not appear to be in business at all.
According to Mrs Thomson, it was only at the tail- end of 2014, and in the light of the No vote, that she decided to run for Westminster, and only in January that she was selected. With almost indecent haste a career in politics was born and, on the tidal wave of support which won the Nationalists all but three of the 59 Scottish seats, she was elected to Westminster.
Perhaps, back in January, neither she nor her party had believed she had any reasonable chance of taking Edinburgh West from the Lib Dems. But as the May election day drew closer, both must have realised she stood an excellent chance of becoming an MP. And she, surely, must have known of the storm blowing steadily in her direction.
The revelation weeks ago that her email address had been published along with millions of customers of the adultery website Ashley Madison was merely the first rumble. That, she could claim quite believably, was part of a smear campaign. But the revelations of the deceptions used by her lawyer to build her property empire by preying on vulnerable homeowners – described in his disciplinary tribunal as ‘distressed sellers – could not be dismissed so lightly.
They shine a devastatingly harsh light on the business methods of the Nationalist MP who was chosen to hold the business brief.
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The investigation mentioned in the text done by "economics blogger Kevin Hague " can be found on his own Blog here :-
and also his scrutiny of a video "Scotland for Business" made for the Indy Referendum here :-
Kevin also produced a presentation on the Indy "White paper" and the data they used here :-
http://chokkablog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/chokkablog-videos.html
He can also be followed on Twitter .... see his blog.
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This story might well yet escalate quickly as the Police enquiry deepens :-
"The Law Society of Scotland is facing intense pressure over a year-long delay in alerting prosecutors to a case of suspected mortgage fraud linked to Scottish National party MP Michelle Thomson."
"As further questions emerged about the role of another Law Society official who knew Thomson and was also a nationalist campaigner, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon made clear that the MP faced
being drummed out of the party over the affair as she faced a barrage of questions at Holyrood."
See more on this link http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/01/law-society-of-scotland-under-pressure-over-mps-suspected-mortgage?CMP=share_btn_tw
=========================================================================
Sunday 4th October 2015 The Sunday Herald reveals infighting within multiple members of Business for Scotland that led to Michelle Thomson no longer being paid for "consultancy services " but yet let her continue to be called the "Managing Director" for months till the Indy referendum to help avoid further problems and bad press for Business for Scotland itself.
Read the whole article by CLICKING HERE
Sunday 4th October 2015 The vetting process that has come under scrutiny in the Michelle Thomson situation has now also raised questions about the suitablity of Paul Monaghan too for selection as SNP Candidate too. There are details of serious issues at his fathers previous Nursing home and also of when he worked at the Northern Constabulary.
Read the whole article by CLICKING HERE
To end this Blog and have a few seconds to think about the SNP's troubles CLICK ON HERE
He can also be followed on Twitter .... see his blog.
=========================================================================
This story might well yet escalate quickly as the Police enquiry deepens :-
"The Law Society of Scotland is facing intense pressure over a year-long delay in alerting prosecutors to a case of suspected mortgage fraud linked to Scottish National party MP Michelle Thomson."
"As further questions emerged about the role of another Law Society official who knew Thomson and was also a nationalist campaigner, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon made clear that the MP faced
being drummed out of the party over the affair as she faced a barrage of questions at Holyrood."
See more on this link http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/01/law-society-of-scotland-under-pressure-over-mps-suspected-mortgage?CMP=share_btn_tw
=========================================================================
Sunday 4th October 2015 The Sunday Herald reveals infighting within multiple members of Business for Scotland that led to Michelle Thomson no longer being paid for "consultancy services " but yet let her continue to be called the "Managing Director" for months till the Indy referendum to help avoid further problems and bad press for Business for Scotland itself.
Read the whole article by CLICKING HERE
Sunday 4th October 2015 The vetting process that has come under scrutiny in the Michelle Thomson situation has now also raised questions about the suitablity of Paul Monaghan too for selection as SNP Candidate too. There are details of serious issues at his fathers previous Nursing home and also of when he worked at the Northern Constabulary.
Read the whole article by CLICKING HERE
To end this Blog and have a few seconds to think about the SNP's troubles CLICK ON HERE
